Toddler plunged to death from balcony

Mr Kremer said the hotel had been described as family friendly. Picture: Courtesy of BBC Berkshire

A heartbroken father has told an inquest he watched in horror as his 18-month-old son plunged to his death while on a family holiday.

Little Brad Kremer from Tidmarsh fell nearly three metres from a first-floor balcony on to a tiled roof at the Chia Laguna hotel in Sardinia in August 2009.

His father Richard Kremer, 45, told the hearing at Newbury Town Hall on Wednesday that his son fell after he himself was momentarily distracted by one of his other three children.

“I did not see Brad climbing through,” he said.

“I just saw his hand and elbow disappear when he tried to cling on to the wall at the end.”

Brad’s mother Stacey Kremer, 37, retrieved her son and took him to the hotel reception where a passing paediatrician tried to resuscitate the youngster before paramedics arrived.

Sardinian authorities, including both the Carabinieri – the Italian police force – and the country’s public prosecution service, concluded Brad must have climbed over the railings.

But Mr Kremer said: “My boy could hardly climb on to a bed, and knowing what he was like he would not have been able to climb over it. He wasn’t Spiderman.”

A tearful Mrs Kremer, 37, clutching a tissue and her husband’s hand throughout the hearing, told the inquest Brad had started walking only three months earlier.

Mr Kremer said the hotel had been described as “family friendly” and family spokesman Stephen Gosney confirmed that magistrates were intending to prosecute the hotel.

A post mortem examination revealed Brad had suffered neither fracture nor haemorrhage and had died from cardiac concussion where force from a sudden impact causes the heart to stop.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford said: “Brad’s injuries were not fatal and the distance he fell was not hugely significant, but the way he fell was the cause of his death, and that can be described as being extremely unlucky.”

Paying tribute together to their lost son, the Kremers said: “It is now 20 long months since we lost our precious little Brad.

“Every day for us is as difficult as the one before and the heartache does not get any easier.

“Any parent who has lost a child will understand there is a void that can never be filled.”

The couple thanked their family, friends and colleagues who have supported them, as well as the many people they have never met who took the time to send their heartfelt messages.

The Kremers added: “Brad was only 18 months old when he died. We will not let our son’s name be forgotten and we will not let his death be in vain.”

Mr Bedford agreed to send the findings of the inquest to the Sardinian authorities via the British Consulate.